May14
A man walked up to valet parking at Crown Casino and requested the keys to a Ferrari, owned by Van Marcus, the millionaire poker player.
Amazingly, the staff handed over the keys and the man drove off on a six hour joyride.
Marcus won $278,000 at the WPS last year yet so he’s a man who knows when to gamble. But he shouldn’t have gambled his Ferrari.
It reminds me of a story I did on Today Tonight a few years ago where I dressed up as a security guard and offered to ‘park’ people’s cars.
I got three cars and a punch in the face.
Good times.
Posted in ABC Radio, News | No Comments »
May10
Over the weekend I drove up to Macorna to perform a show for the local football club.
Each year, they bring up someone a bit different to entertain the locals and get a bit of extra support for the club. Since there isn’t much of township and most of the residents are spread over farms and properties, the club is a focal point for the community.
On the drive up I was listening to the science show and a discussion on The Dunning-Kruger effect, a pyschological phenemonan that shows that, in the words of Bertrand Russel, “the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.”
Dunning and Kruger asked a group of students to predict how well they had performed on a simple test. Those who thought they had done well, tended to perform badly whereas those who were more critical of their performance, tended to be underestimating their abilities.
You can listen to the story here.
The Dunning Kruger effect could also be applied to gullibility.
Many people I speak to about scams can not believe how the victim’s of fraud and swindles could be so gullible, so stupid. Yet it is this over confidence in their own ability to spot a scam that will, eventually, trip them up.
It’s very easy to pass judgement on others with the benefit of hindsight (fun too) but most victims of scams are intelligent people who got a little too careless and a little too cocky for their own good.
But not me…never me…
Posted in ABC Radio, News, Travels | 2 Comments »
April7
On the radio this week, the big talking point was the new casino that might be coming soon to Mildura. 250 people protested the plan today and callers were concerned that the only people to make money would be the government and the casino.
Two people who have made money from casinos were a London duo who hacked in the roulette computer at an English casino. The computers allowed people to make remote bets on the wheel without having to talk to croupiers. They duo reprogrammed the machine to always pay off!
This is how you DON’T play roulette
In happier, we discussed a Queensland woman who managed to get back some of the $40,000 she was scammed by a Nigerian student who posed as an English widower. The student was sentenced to 19 years and the government managed to retrieve some of the cash.
Posted in ABC Radio, Gambling | No Comments »
March24
We had plenty of callers ringing to complain about a scratch card in a major newspaper on the weekend. Everyone who scratches, wins. The catch is you need to text or call a $20 premium number to find out you only won a free ring tone. One caller managed to get his money back by complaining.
An Indian man has been wandering the streets of Melbourne claiming he can read fortunes. He’d write a prediction on a small piece of paper and then ask victims what their favourite flower and number was. He always got it right leading to several women giving him $20 and $50 notes. To find out how he did it, talk to this man or head over to the Melbourne Magic Festival.
Plenty of callers has been infected by a worm attached to a facebook message. The email claimed that their facebook password had been changed. It was also asked “how can you tell what is a real page and what is a hoax page. The key is to look at every between the http:// and the next / . The address reads from right to left. So scam.facebook.com would be a real site as it falls under the facebook.com domain. facebook.scam.com would be a fake site as it falls under the scam.com domain.
Finally, serial swindle Wayne Charters is behind bars after being found guilty of five counts of obtaining money by deception. He married a Rosebud woman and then convinced her to sell all her assets so they could move overseas together. He claimed to be an ASIO spy trying to escape the organisation. He got out of sleeping with her by claiming that he ‘didn’t believe in sex before marriage’ and ‘had a bad back.’
If you’ve got a scam question for the show, email me at sleightofhand@conman.com.au.
Posted in ABC Radio, Internet, News | 1 Comment »
March17
Today on Statewide Drive with Kathy Bedford we discuss:
Melbourne celebrities and high profile sports people taken for a ride in a ponzi style betting scam.
Taxi drivers accused of over charging tourists who pay by credit card.
Swindling trades people claim to have permission from RACV insurance to repair storm damaged houses. They ask fall (over) payment up for work they often don’t even complete.
I challenge Kathy to figure out the meanings of some old time con man lingo.
Posted in ABC Radio, News | No Comments »
February24
This week on statewide drive with Kathy Bedford we discussed:
Casino Conjuring: The Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation spent $25,000 being Las Vegas magician Barron Stringfellow (best. name. ever.) to Australia to teach investigators how to spot a cheat.
A good investment of taxpayer money?
UPS Scam: A caller asked whether an email from UPS was really a scam (it was) and another called wondering why we get more scam emails this time of year. (the answer: we all need to cash after Christmas)
Twitter: We discussed the various frauds associated the social networking site and how to avoid getting swindled while tweeting.
Is the openness and anonymity of tweeter a breeding ground for swindlers?
Climate Change Government: Scamwatch warns us to be on the look out for fake offers of grants to fix climate change.
Posted in ABC Radio, Internet, Magic, News | 4 Comments »
December9
I’m not a big fan of the Twilight books and movies and even less of a fan of the brooding, emo lite, tweens who obsessed over the stories and dream of being drag off by a pale, cheek boned vampire.
But this new spam scam email is still sad, preying on the weak fans of those who prey on the weak.
This email has been arriving in the in-box of teens around the world looking for extras for the third
This is a nationwide casting and [Portland]-area movie extras are still needed. No experience is necessary, all looks/types are wanted and the pay ranges from $80-$250 per day depending on whether it’s part or full time.”
Once the victims click on the link, they are sent to a website that requires payment before the casting call details can be viewed.
Suckers.
One. Two. Two Meanings. Mha-ha-ha!
Posted in ABC Radio, Film, Internet | 2 Comments »
December6
I’ve had several friends here in Melbourne report bad dealings with a company called Dotcom Chrome.
The company rings businesses offering to get them on the front page of Google for a couple of hundred dollars a month.
Because the word ‘Google’ and ‘chrome’ are used near each other, the victim assume the company is somehow related to Google Chrome, the new browser.
This is obviously a little dodgy but not illegal as the owners of companies like “Suny” and ” Palsonic” will tell you.
Several victims also claim that the the company mislead them about how often their ad would appear on the front page of google.
But when the victims tried to cancel their accounts, realising that the company was simply selling them a google adwords account they could simply buy themselves at a lower price, things got tricky.
Most people have found themselves having to jump through hoops, having to send letters to various parts of the world and fill in forms.
Some victims have reported harassing phone calls, emails and, in one case, an ad was created in Google adwords shortly after they started complaining about the company:
Another showed me emails where they were threatened with a smear campaign if they kept up their complaints including the rumour that they were “sued for touching my friends aunties child at a party”.
Others have reported racial abuse and various threats for trying to cancel their account or complain about the group.
When I mentioned the show on the ABC radio show, several people rang and emailed telling me that they had the same phone calls.
Of the Australian victims I have spoken with, several have been told that the AFP, Scamwatch and ACCC will do nothing as the company is based in the UK.
Google refuse to take down the unauthorised ads because, unless the company is trademarked, they are not breaking any laws.
If you want to read more complaints about this Manchester based outfit, click here.
If you have had your own experiences with the company, please let me know.
Posted in ABC Radio, Internet | 19 Comments »
December3
“Andy Warhol looks a screm
Hang him on my wall
Andy Warhol, silver screen
Can’t tell them apart at all.”
- David Bowie
It takes balls to be a swindler.
But sometimes even I am impressed by the braziness of some con artists.
Victor Lustig sold the Eiffel Tower. Gregor McGregor sold a country that doesn’t exist. George C Parker sold the Brooklyn Bridge twice a week for ten years.
You can add to that list a pair of Utah con artists who sold paintings by a dead man of a man who does not exist.
The couple sold six Andy Warhol paintings for $100,000 to their victim who ponied up a $25,000 deposit.
Problem is, the paintings were dated 1996 and Warhol died in 1987.
Not only that, the portraits were of Matthew Baldwin, the sixth Baldwin brother. There are only five Baldwins (thank god).
A man received a big surprise when he learned the six Andy Warhol paintings he purchased for $100,000 were fake.
They also tried to sell the man a lithograph of a pink cat that was actually a picture cut out of the newspaper!
I’m never one to blame the victim. We’ve all done stupid things in our lives. But the pay over $25,000 deposit for an artist you obviously know nothing about seems extraordinary stupid. Lindsay Lohen stupid. Sara Palin stupid.
The victim is now forced to eat only this
Posted in ABC Radio, History, News, Quotes | 2 Comments »
November27
A couple of days ago, a lot of my Australian friends changed their facebook status to:
All I want for Christmas is a Westfield Gift Card!
They’d added an application that is meant to give them a chance to with $10,000 from Westfield.
However, a few hours later, many more of my friends has a new status:
THE WESTFIELD GIFT CARD APPLICATION IS FAKE AND IF YOU ENTER THIS SITE THEY CAN HACK INTO YOUR PROFILE AND USING IT TO LOAD TROJON VIRUSES. FACEBOOK R IN THE PROCESS OF TRYING TO CLOSE THIS APPLICATION DO NOT ADD UNLESS YOU WANT YOUR IDENTITY STOLEN OR A CRASHED COMPUTER……COPY AND PASTE INTO YOUR STATUS.
So what’s the story?
Westfield is indeed running a promotion through facebook. You can find the offical link here.
It’s the latest in a long history of fake virus warnings and phony fear mongering.
Of course, you have little chance of winning and you’ll annoy all your friends when the crass message shows up on their home page probably leading to them ‘hiding’ you as a friend in the future.
But if you want to sell out that’s your business.
Stamp Font. Awesome.
Posted in ABC Radio, Hoax, Internet | 2 Comments »